CAAS Newsletter – Winter 2017

Recent CAAS Accreditations

In November, the CAAS Panel of Commissioners granted new CAAS accreditation to one agency:

• Superior Air-Ground Ambulance Service of Michigan, Inc. (Warren, MI)

Additionally, the following seven agencies were granted re-accreditation:

• American Medical Response Central Mississippi (Jackson, MS)
• American Medical Response, Los Angeles (Irwindale, CA)
• American Medical Response, San Diego (San Diego, CA)
• Doctor’s Ambulance Service (Laguna Hills, CA)
• Lifeguard Ambulance Service (Milton, FL)
• Metro West Ambulance (Hillsboro, OR)
• North Ottawa Community Health System (Grand Haven, MI)

In December, the CAAS Panel of Commissioners granted new CAAS accreditation to one agency:

• Siloam Springs Fire Department (Siloam Springs, AR)

Additionally, the following ten agencies were granted re-accreditation:

• Albuquerque Ambulance (Albuquerque, NM)
• Ambucare (Bremen, GA)
• American Ambulance, Inc. (Somersworth, NH)
• American Medical Response of West Michigan (Grand Rapids, MI)
• American Medical Response South Mississippi (Gulfport, MS)
• Harris County Emergency Corps (Houston, TX)
• Lapeer County EMS (Lapeer, MI)
• Richmond Ambulance Authority (Richmond, VA)
• Twin Township Ambulance, Inc. (New Lothrop, MI)
• Winter Park Fire Rescue Department (Winter Park, FL)

Congratulations to all our initial and re-accrediting agencies for a job well done!

Congratulations to CAAS Board Member

The American Ambulance Association (AAA) awarded Mark Meijer with the 2017 J. Walter Schaefer Award. The J. Walter Schaefer Award is given annually to an individual whose work in EMS has contributed positively to the advancement of the industry as a whole. Mark has achieved this distinction through dedication and service in his role as President of the Michigan Ambulance Association.

AAA President Mark Postma noted, “Mark has worked tirelessly to elevate the Michigan Ambulance Association and its members to national prominence. We are proud to celebrate his achievements to the communities he serves by presenting him with the J. Walter Schaefer Award for 2017.”

Congratulations to these CAAS Accredited Agencies

Each year, the American Ambulance Association’s (AAA) award program (The AMBYs) highlight excellence in EMS and the ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit that epitomize AAA members. This year, several CAAS accredited agencies were 2017 AMBY award winners:

Medic Ambulance Service, Inc. (California) won an award in the Public Relations Campaign category in recognition of the Robbin Mackbee EMS Youth Academy. The program, which is named in honor of a local hero who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty, sets the goal of transforming its at-risk cadets from coping with a challenging present into moving towards a dignified future.

MEDIC EMS Agency (North Carolina) won two awards. MEDIC EMS achieved the Employee Programs honor through the creation of the Night of Honor event, which recognized more than 400 employees, friends, family members and survivors. In the Quality Improvement Programs category, MEDIC EMS demonstrated excellence through an employee-led program to revamp its ambulance design.

NorthStar EMS, Inc. was being recognized with an AMBY Award for the community impact program they developed to spread awareness through a monthly EMS segment with a local television station. The topics covered each month had the goal of providing education on injury and illness prevention.

Sunstar Paramedics was recognized for their process improvement program for new hires. The program identified the need to streamline the pre-hire process, improve the quality of training of the new EMTs and Paramedics, and provide the Field Training Officers (FTO) with more leadership skills and abilities.

CAAS releases updated Value of Ambulance Accreditation Overview

CAAS is pleased to announce the availability of a recently revised overview on the benefits of ambulance accreditation. This 12-page PDF answers the important questions that prospective agencies have about accreditation in general and the CAAS accreditation process in particular. Here are some of the questions that it addresses:

• What is the value of Ambulance Accreditation?
• What do the accreditation standards include?
• Does accreditation really improve an agency’s patient care?
• How does accreditation impact an agency’s personnel?
• What about community involvement?
• How does accreditation address communications?
• Do oversight agencies look seriously at accreditation?
• What’s involved in the CAAS Accreditation?
• Why should contractors choose to work with an accredited agency?

CAAS Continues Roll Out of Free Educational Webinars

CAAS recently recorded a couple new on-demand webinars designed to answer common questions encountered by agencies going through the accreditation process.

Top 10 Standard Challenges and How to Avoid Them (Webinar)
This free, 35-minute webinar identifies the top 10 standards that are commonly misunderstood or misinterpreted. We review each standard, break down the intent and interpretation of each one, as well as provide you with tips and suggestions to help you and your staff successfully meet these standards in your own organization.

How to Develop Policies and Procedures (Webinar)
This free, 50-minute webinar is intended to help smaller agencies develop and organize its policies and procedures into functional and accessible formats. We review basic policy and procedure functions, standardized formatting, policy development and writing techniques, as well as policy distribution, review and archival.

Access Webinars

CAAS Ground Vehicle Standard Updates

The GVS Remount Standard development project is progressing on schedule. The Remount Standard Work Group met in September in Raleigh, NC, and identified topics and issues to be addressed. Sub Work Groups are currently meeting, and will make presentations at the next Work Group meeting in Largo, Florida on January 31. The Remount Standard Work Group will hold their final meeting in Spring of 2018, with the intent of delivering a draft Remount Standard to the main CAAS GVS Committee later in the year.

The CAAS GVS Committee will convene in the second half of 2018 to start development of the CAAS GVS V2.0 document. This new document will include updates from the V1.0 revision, as well as potentially incorporating a new Remount Standard. CAAS GVS V2.0 will be published in early 2019, with a July 2019 effective date.

Upcoming Events for CAAS in 2018

CAAS will be attending and/or exhibiting at these upcoming meetings – please plan to stop by our exhibit booth.